Why Does Kalista Have a 100% Ban Rate at Worlds?
So far at Worlds 2017, a total of 68 games have been played. That seems like quite a lot, doesn’t it? If that seems like a lot, then it will seem like even more when one is reminded that Kalista has been banned every single game of the tournament. Not once has she seen the light of day, and nor will she ever most likely for the rest of Worlds. In Worlds past, some champions have been viewed as so strong that they were close to 100% banned for the entire tournament. But once or twice they are left off the ban bench and given up, usually to secure a couple almost-as-highly contested picks in return. No one champion has been banned every single game in a Worlds tournament.
However, our good friend, the Spear of Vengeance, has still not been given up once yet, and this doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon. Kalista has a good possibility of being the first 100% banned champion at Worlds. She is consistently first banned on red side, with a couple times being second banned, but still always by the red side. This, of course, happens because blue side gets first pick and the red side team does not want to give her up. That begs the question, why don’t teams want to give Kalista up? Is she so dominantly powerful that teams aren’t willing to give her up for a couple strong picks of their own? The answer is yes, and here’s why.
In my opinion, there are three concrete reasons why Kalista is must-ban in the current Worlds meta. The first one we’ll take a look at is her good laning phase and great mid-game teamfighting. Kalista is a marksman who can not only bully her lane phase, but also push the lane and peel for herself if a fight breaks out. In the current AD Carry meta, these three qualities are extremely important to have. The first two combative qualities (bullying and pushing the lane) can be attributed to her easy wave clear with Runaan’s Hurricane and Rend ability as well as her extra vision provided by her Sentinels. A combination of these allows Kalista to safely push the wave while not being in danger to jungle or mid-lane ganks. The other quality that helps sky-rocket her is her ability to self-peel in teamfights, whether they be small skirmishes in lane or mid-game 5v5 fights, which is provided to her by her Martial Poise passive. These in-combat qualities all help make Kalista an already strong champion, but that’s just the beginning.
The second reason for Kalista’s 100% ban rate at Worlds can be attributed to her very powerful ultimate. On one hand, her Fate’s Call can be an easy escape for her support to get out of fight going downhill. It drags them back over 2,000 units and makes sure the team disengages safely. But on the other hand, this ability can also do the exact opposite, being a potent engage tool that can start off fights with extreme ease. Couple this with a support champion like Rakan or Thresh, and the team now has an incredibly tenacious combination of engage abilities that can be catastrophic for the enemy team. This engage combination does not want to be messed with by any team, adding to her already impressive kit and making her even more ban-worthy.
Finally, the third and last reason for Kalista’s permanent ban rate would be her ability to secure neutral objectives with safety and simplicity. Her Rend does stack on jungle monsters, including epic monsters like Drakes and Baron Nashor, meaning she can do high amounts of damage when activating the Rend, allowing for an instant source of objective control. Similar to Cho’Gath’s Feast, this ability helps Kalista secure almost every neutral objective she is fighting along with a smite from the junlger. With professional junglers becoming better and better at timing objective takes, and therefore better chances at stealing the objectives, Kalista cuts this risk greatly and makes her ridiculously valuable.
These three reasons are all commanding components in the game in their own right. However, if you combine them all together in one champion’s kit, they can become unstoppable in the current meta of Worlds 2017. No champion has gone through Worlds being banned every single game, but the Spear of Vengeance is looking to change that. Kalista is still deservedly sitting at a 100% ban rate for the tournament through 68 games, and I don’t see that statistic changing anytime soon unless something truly crazy happens.